Time: 3 hours (including a swim and lunch)
Distance: 11.5 km
Start: Corner of Wakefield and Sumnervale Drive (Lower)
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 25th February 2022
Covid finally at our doorstep and an outbreak of war on the other side of this earth. We rendezvoused at 9ish and headed up Sumnervale Drive (Lower) to the Sumnervale Reserve. I was sporting a dicky back and proceeded gingerly over the turnstile. We followed the Captain Thomas Track which skirts the pony field and heads up the hill, before popping out on to Sumnervale Drive (Upper). The track seems to disappear at this point, but does continue on the other side of the road, nicely obscured by traffic island foliage.
We soon turned off from the Captain Thomas Track (which continues up the valley) onto the Scarborough Bluffs Track and wound our way up to Evans Pass Road. We negotiated another turnstile (ouch) and crossed the road to where the track continues up the hill. Another turn off (easy to miss), and then we levelled off and sidled along with fab views out towards Sumner and the ocean beyond.
Eventually, as we rounded the corner, Taylor's Mistake Beach/Te Onepoto came into view. Paragliders were floating above it. We crossed a farm road and then headed steeply down to Taylors Mistake Road. On the other side we descended a gazillion steps to the beautiful beach. He tātahi ātaahua. Te Onepoto means "the short beach" in Te Reo Māori. And who was Taylor and what was his (or her) mistake? The story around the naming of Taylor's mistake is somewhat ambiguous. Three possible anecdotes about three different Taylors, all involving ships and seamen who fucked up sometime around the 1850's.
The sun was momentarily out. Kim and I, watching for potential rips, went for a fabulous swim and afterwards my back pain had miraculously disappeared entirely (almost). We walked the beach and skirted around the quirky baches to the Taylors Mistake Track which runs along the edge of the cliffs and back over the hill to Nicolson Park.
The last bit down to Sumner was the Flowers Track. Here you get to look in other peoples back gardens and wonder how they get their shopping home.
In Sumner we rendezvoused with Carolien and wandered down to Niche Coffee and Eatery for coffees and smashed avocado bruschettas. Such a privilege in these uncertain times.
